Metering of gas, electricity and water must ensure that the usage data collected is valid for customer billing purposes. If a metering device has been tampered with, e.g., opened or vandalized, the billing information may not be correct thereafter. Meter tampering may be shunting of current measuring devices in an electric meter, bypassing or altering the flow measuring device in gas and water meters, etc.
Tampering and/or mishandling of shipping containers, e.g., boxes, suitcases, and the like, may occur during shipping transient but what happened and when it happened generally is a mystery. Thus when there are multiple shippers involved, responsibility on who is to blame may be hard to determine and collection for damages equally difficult.